Post by Okwes on Feb 22, 2006 15:31:22 GMT -5
Miss New Mexico (profile)
unday, February 19, 2006
Navajo Sees Miss USA Pageant as Step in Her Journey for Knowledge About
Herself
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
Ella Mae Yazzie has never been on an airplane, so the 70-year-old
will be making a very long train trip from her home in Gallup to
Baltimore later this spring to be in the audience for the Miss USA
pageant.
She's going to witness New Mexico and Navajo history and to cheer on
her granddaughter, Onawa Lacy, a member of the Navajo tribe who will
wear the Miss New Mexico sash in the competition.
At 5-feet 10-inches tall— and topping 6 feet in heels— Lacy towers
over her Navajo grandma like a beauty queen should, and she carries
along with the requisite crown and dazzling smile a serious message
about diversity and native pride.
Lacy, half Navajo and half Anglo, is the first American Indian to
win the Miss New Mexico USA title.
She will be the first Navajo to compete in the Miss USA pageant and
the second tribal member ever to take the Miss USA stage.
Vanessa Shortbull, an Oglala Lakota from South Dakota, competed for
Miss USA in 2000.
For Lacy, a University of New Mexico student with designs on law
school, the pageant is another step in an unusual journey she started in
high school— learning about herself by competing on the pageant stage.
"Being biracial, it has been a struggle for me to know who I am,"
Lacy said.
As a senior in high school in Gallup and raised mostly with her
non-Navajo relatives, Lacy was taking elementary Navajo as a foreign
language credit and longing to understand more about her Indian side.
"That is when I really thought of pageantry as an avenue to learn
the language and culture," she said.
Lacy plunged in and, as a college sophomore, entered the
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial queen contest in Gallup.
Lacy had grown up partially in Raton and partially in Gamerco, a !
mining town outside of Gallup where her father, Rodney, worked at the
Pittsburgh and Midway mine. Although she visited her Navajo relatives,
her family traditions had been 100 percent Anglo— hamburgers and poker
games on Sunday followed by the Dallas Cowboys game on TV.
She owned no traditional clothing, so her mother, Rena, and
grandmother, Ella Mae, furiously sewed for two weeks while Lacy took a
crash course in Navajo.
The results were a lesson in humility.
"I was so nervous," Lacy said. "I think I came in last."
Lacy plunged in again, studied interview questions and practiced her
answers and, a month later, tackled the Miss Indian New Mexico contest
at the New Mexico State Fair.
She won and spent the next year traveling around New Mexico and
going to Washington, D.C., and New York to represent New Mexico's Indian
people.
When her reign was over, s! he went on to compete for Miss Indian
World, the most prestigious contest in Indian Country. It takes place on
the floor of the Pit during the Gathering of Nations Powwow.
For that, Lacy had to learn the Navajo Ribbon Dance and bone up even
more on Navajo history and culture. She won and spent her one-year reign
traveling throughout the country.
With each level of pageantry comes new challenges.
Lacy was smart, gorgeous and well mannered when she won Miss Indian
World in 2003.
But when she decided to break from Indian pageants into mainstream
beauty competitions by trying out for Miss New Mexico USA last year, she
started working out, dropped some weight and got invisible braces.
Gone were the days of eating frybread and stew. In the world of
mainstream pageants, Lacy had to wear a bikini on stage.
"That was something completely brand new for me," she said.
Lacy won the Miss New Mexico USA crown in Las Cruces in October but
had little time to bask in her accomplishment.
With the national pageant looming, Lacy stepped up the workouts with
a personal trainer, started bleaching her teeth and began studying
interview questions, evening gown styles, even the "glide" with which
contestants transport themselves across the national stage.
"She is taking this very seriously for herself, for New Mexico, for
Native American people," said Melissa Sanchez, a Native American
entertainment producer who has been helping ready Lacy for the pageant.
Lacy doesn't mind the full-time devotion to self-improvement, and
she doesn't take personally the suggestions to slim down or tone up.
She's dropped from a size 12 to a size 6 and is eating chicken,
brown rice and vegetables.
"I'm a strong person," she said. "I lo! ok at what's the standard
and then I try to do better."
For the next six weeks, Lacy will be making public appearances as
Miss New Mexico USA while she works out for two hours a day and prepares
her extensive wardrobe for her trip to Baltimore.
The pageant will be broadcast live on NBC on April 21 with Nancy
O'Dell and Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood" as hosts.
Her parents, now living in Colombia, where her father is a mine
superintendent, will be in the audience with a slew of relatives.
Lacy should be calm under the pressure of the national spotlight,
her mother said.
"I get really nervous," she said. "I think I do it enough for both
of us."
If Lacy wins, she'll make national history as the first American
Indian Miss USA.
She would not be the first Miss USA from New Mexico, however. Mai
Shanley, 21, of Alamogordo was crowned M! iss USA in 1984. Like Lacy,
Shanley was also biracial and the first Asian American to win the title.
Shanley's mother was Filipina and her father, like Lacy's, was of
Irish descent.
Lacy has been reflecting on the message she wants to convey while
she has a national stage and is targeting diversity and Native Americans
in the 21st century.
"Being the first Native American Miss New Mexico USA has really
opened my eyes to the lack of knowledge of Native American culture in
mainstream America," Lacy said.
She has been complimented on how well she speaks English and asked
whether she lives in a teepee.
"I want to enlighten people about how we live on a day-to-day basis
and share that cultural knowledge," Lacy said.
unday, February 19, 2006
Navajo Sees Miss USA Pageant as Step in Her Journey for Knowledge About
Herself
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
Ella Mae Yazzie has never been on an airplane, so the 70-year-old
will be making a very long train trip from her home in Gallup to
Baltimore later this spring to be in the audience for the Miss USA
pageant.
She's going to witness New Mexico and Navajo history and to cheer on
her granddaughter, Onawa Lacy, a member of the Navajo tribe who will
wear the Miss New Mexico sash in the competition.
At 5-feet 10-inches tall— and topping 6 feet in heels— Lacy towers
over her Navajo grandma like a beauty queen should, and she carries
along with the requisite crown and dazzling smile a serious message
about diversity and native pride.
Lacy, half Navajo and half Anglo, is the first American Indian to
win the Miss New Mexico USA title.
She will be the first Navajo to compete in the Miss USA pageant and
the second tribal member ever to take the Miss USA stage.
Vanessa Shortbull, an Oglala Lakota from South Dakota, competed for
Miss USA in 2000.
For Lacy, a University of New Mexico student with designs on law
school, the pageant is another step in an unusual journey she started in
high school— learning about herself by competing on the pageant stage.
"Being biracial, it has been a struggle for me to know who I am,"
Lacy said.
As a senior in high school in Gallup and raised mostly with her
non-Navajo relatives, Lacy was taking elementary Navajo as a foreign
language credit and longing to understand more about her Indian side.
"That is when I really thought of pageantry as an avenue to learn
the language and culture," she said.
Lacy plunged in and, as a college sophomore, entered the
Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial queen contest in Gallup.
Lacy had grown up partially in Raton and partially in Gamerco, a !
mining town outside of Gallup where her father, Rodney, worked at the
Pittsburgh and Midway mine. Although she visited her Navajo relatives,
her family traditions had been 100 percent Anglo— hamburgers and poker
games on Sunday followed by the Dallas Cowboys game on TV.
She owned no traditional clothing, so her mother, Rena, and
grandmother, Ella Mae, furiously sewed for two weeks while Lacy took a
crash course in Navajo.
The results were a lesson in humility.
"I was so nervous," Lacy said. "I think I came in last."
Lacy plunged in again, studied interview questions and practiced her
answers and, a month later, tackled the Miss Indian New Mexico contest
at the New Mexico State Fair.
She won and spent the next year traveling around New Mexico and
going to Washington, D.C., and New York to represent New Mexico's Indian
people.
When her reign was over, s! he went on to compete for Miss Indian
World, the most prestigious contest in Indian Country. It takes place on
the floor of the Pit during the Gathering of Nations Powwow.
For that, Lacy had to learn the Navajo Ribbon Dance and bone up even
more on Navajo history and culture. She won and spent her one-year reign
traveling throughout the country.
With each level of pageantry comes new challenges.
Lacy was smart, gorgeous and well mannered when she won Miss Indian
World in 2003.
But when she decided to break from Indian pageants into mainstream
beauty competitions by trying out for Miss New Mexico USA last year, she
started working out, dropped some weight and got invisible braces.
Gone were the days of eating frybread and stew. In the world of
mainstream pageants, Lacy had to wear a bikini on stage.
"That was something completely brand new for me," she said.
Lacy won the Miss New Mexico USA crown in Las Cruces in October but
had little time to bask in her accomplishment.
With the national pageant looming, Lacy stepped up the workouts with
a personal trainer, started bleaching her teeth and began studying
interview questions, evening gown styles, even the "glide" with which
contestants transport themselves across the national stage.
"She is taking this very seriously for herself, for New Mexico, for
Native American people," said Melissa Sanchez, a Native American
entertainment producer who has been helping ready Lacy for the pageant.
Lacy doesn't mind the full-time devotion to self-improvement, and
she doesn't take personally the suggestions to slim down or tone up.
She's dropped from a size 12 to a size 6 and is eating chicken,
brown rice and vegetables.
"I'm a strong person," she said. "I lo! ok at what's the standard
and then I try to do better."
For the next six weeks, Lacy will be making public appearances as
Miss New Mexico USA while she works out for two hours a day and prepares
her extensive wardrobe for her trip to Baltimore.
The pageant will be broadcast live on NBC on April 21 with Nancy
O'Dell and Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood" as hosts.
Her parents, now living in Colombia, where her father is a mine
superintendent, will be in the audience with a slew of relatives.
Lacy should be calm under the pressure of the national spotlight,
her mother said.
"I get really nervous," she said. "I think I do it enough for both
of us."
If Lacy wins, she'll make national history as the first American
Indian Miss USA.
She would not be the first Miss USA from New Mexico, however. Mai
Shanley, 21, of Alamogordo was crowned M! iss USA in 1984. Like Lacy,
Shanley was also biracial and the first Asian American to win the title.
Shanley's mother was Filipina and her father, like Lacy's, was of
Irish descent.
Lacy has been reflecting on the message she wants to convey while
she has a national stage and is targeting diversity and Native Americans
in the 21st century.
"Being the first Native American Miss New Mexico USA has really
opened my eyes to the lack of knowledge of Native American culture in
mainstream America," Lacy said.
She has been complimented on how well she speaks English and asked
whether she lives in a teepee.
"I want to enlighten people about how we live on a day-to-day basis
and share that cultural knowledge," Lacy said.